Predator Called Progress
by Maji
Summary: Response to a Fanfic challenge. The day the town was bypassed from the view point of Doc Hudson.


Disclaimer: Pixar owns cars of course. Doctor Remmings is my own creation. Lovingly crafted after a very grumpy doctor that I work with. He knows who he is!

This short story was created in response to a challenge by CarsFanfic yahoo group. The challenge was:

1. The day Radiator Springs was bypassed by the Interstate was a momentous and sad day for the town. Write a story based on this event. Make it either third person or from the point of view of one of the characters.

2. Write about Lighting's arrival into town from the point of view of one of the following characters: Ramone, Filmore, Sheriff, Guido, Red, or Sarge. Preferably first person.

I chose challenge number one. The day Radiator Springs was Bypassed from the point of view of Doc Hudson. Also note I challenged myself! I don't often write in first person! Proud of me? I hope so!

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It was a nice day... That was possibly the most prominent thought that was on my mind... It was a nice day and it shouldn't have been. I watched from the safety of my clinic as the rest of the town bustled outside.

Most of these people had been born in the small little town... Had never left... But for a few...

Ramone came from... Somewhere... I'm not entirely sure where. Flo I know came from a tour of show cars... Why she was so excited I could never even begin to figure out. She had been around the block... Done a lot of traveling. She should know what this meant for the town...

This afternoon the Governor was going to be in the capitol announcing the opening of the interstate. I had only been in this town for about a year but I already cared for these people... I also knew what this meant... I had seen it happen back home in Georgia a time or two...

Everyone was outside in such high spirits. Rout 66 was the mother road and in their opinion would never die... As I sat looking out the clinic window they were all in front of Flo's cafe hanging a banner across the street. They had worked so hard on it... Welcome Interstate Travelers..

"Why aren't you out there with um' son?"

I jumped just a bit at Doctor Remming's gentle voice. The old car... Had almost become somewhat like a father to me since coming to this town... He had given me a chance... I was going to take his place as the town doctor in a few years when he decided to retire... He already had this nice little place picked out in Miami...

"They look so excited... They just know that this is going to be a big change for the town..."

Doctor Remmings nodded slowly in understanding. "And you don't think it will be?"

I sighed heavily and shook my grill. "No... I know it will be... No one is going to want to stop in a little town when they're putting in truckstops and things all along that interstate..."

"You've got a good business sense about ya boy... Can see the unavoidable way that things work..." Doctor Remmings mused softly.

I sighed heavily and in that moment... I wished I didn't. I wished I didn't know how things worked... That the little guy was always small and insignificant when thrown into the big picture... That when large corporate owned stores came in, no one wanted to shop at the little tire shop down the street... That when the big interstate came through, no one drove on little two lane roads anymore... That when the very convenient and time saving truck stops were put in along the interstate no one would have time to stop at Radiator Springs... Suddenly they would see they could get to where they were going a day faster... Save money... Save time...

I didn't want to know that. I didn't want to tell them that. Not when the whole town was in the middle of the street laughing and playing with one another. Watching as they raised the sign they had worked so hard to make to welcome a whole new group of customers...

They had been looking forward to the Interstate being finished since the project had officially begun...

Behind me I could hear the radio playing as Doctor Remmings went about the task of cleaning up the clinic. The Governor was speaking... He was announcing the opening of the interstate... Somehow I felt that he had just announced the death of the town...

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It happened slowly... Over a course of two weeks... Oh sure the first few days nothing changed... Then the crowed that was always around Flo's cafe began to dwindle...

Deputy Carson caught a lot less speeders... Sheriff McDuffy began to see less and less of a need for more than one or two officers on the road...

Ramone and Luigi's shops began to see less customers...

After a week the cliental of the town had cut in half... I remember sitting at Flo's cafe and watching as she worriedly went over the books again and again, just knowing there had to be a mistake as to why she was suddenly in the red when she should be well in the black..

After all the interstate was meant to bring in new business.

It was exactly two weeks after the interstate was officially opened that it finally sunk in... I sat in the clinic that day watching them... Unable to be apart of their pain... I had grieved the day the interstate started... Grieved for the town...

Pete had been born in Radiator Springs... His business had been struggling a bit before the interstate. Now he couldn't make ends meet. He was a business car... He knew. The rest of the town was having trouble but he knew...

Sadly I watched as he said his goodbyes and quietly drove out of town. The towns cars sat under that sign for a long time afterwords staring in the direction he had gone... The first car to leave... They all stared sadly down the road wondering who would be next... Who would be next to finally face the facts... To close down their business and try to make it somewhere else... Start a new life somewhere else...

Slowly Mater pulled away and went back to his little business and that seemed to be the driving force that sent them all off on their way. I watched until the street cleared. As long as I had lived there I had never seen it clear before. That's when it truly sunk in for me as well... The execution had been quiet. Peaceful almost. There had been no last desperate struggle. No last stand... But still... The town was dead. The town was gone. Killed by a predator called progress...


End file.
